CFL wide receiver Brad Smith, 28, has found his bride on The Bachelor Canada.Darren Goldstein

Bachelor Canada star and former CFL wide receiver Brad Smith poses for a photograph in Toronto on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. One bachelor, two women, one big decision.That’s what it comes down to as “The Bachelor Canada” heads towards that final rose.Nathan Denette
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

“It was just meant to be, baby.” With those words, viewers of The Bachelor Canada got the fairy tale ending they’d been hoping for since Brad Smith launched his televised search for love as he chose Bianka Kamber over Whitney Lee.

And he didn’t just offer the 28-year-old nurse from Mississauga the final red rose: He got down on one knee and proposed. (After first picking out a diamond engagement ring from a sponsor. After all, there is a formula that one must adhere to when it comes to finding one’s true love on a reality-TV series.)

And the show blew out its budget by licensing the Bryan Adam song Heaven. The ballad soared over the final montage of the pair on the beach in Barbados and a recap reel, reinforcing its Canuckness in a season that saw a lumberjack challenge, a date rounding up cattle on horseback in Alberta and drinking iceberg-spiked martinis on a beach in Newfoundland. (If you didn’t tear up a bit during the proposal, you’ve got antifreeze in your veins, and not one drop of maple syrup.)

But before we got the happily ever after (maybe, we’ll see what happens on The Bachelor Canada: After the Final Rose special next Wednesday on Citytv), Brad’s final two had to meet the family.

Whitney’s visit to the Smith family home in Hudson, Que., became “the most uncomfortable family dinner I’ve ever had,” according to Brad’s sister, Ashley. Whitney couldn’t coherently answer any questions put to her, instead deferring to her beau hunk. Contrast that with Bianka’s visit the next day: She and Brad bring beer (always a smart move, loosen ’em up with alcohol) and she confesses how nervous and excited she is to meet them. Commence the love fest.

After Brad quizzes his family on their impressions (Ashley wins, hands down, with “Brad, we spent 28 years of our lives together. I love you. I love the person that you are. I did not love who you were around Whitney.”), he and the final two fly to Barbados. (Separately, ’cause otherwise that would be one awkward flight.)

On the island, Bianka’s date is characteristically drama-free, but Brad’s boating outing with Whitney is anything but smooth sailing.

After their confrontational date, Brad hightails it to Whitney’s place the next morning. He voice-overs that “I don’t want to have conflict with somebody over things that she can’t even express herself. It’s hard to be around. I’ve been fighting this whole thing since Calgary, since I first saw that different person come out.”

What comes next is one of the more bizarre breakups on The Bachelor franchise. (And that’s saying something. Remember Ali Fedotowsky chasing Justin Rego through the bushes outside their hotel? Ah, good times!)

“I have something to tell you,” Whitney says, but Brad shuts her down with, “Me first … What I always want to do is be respectful of the situation … but we are not at all right for each other.” She walks into another room and shuts the door on his face. Literally. Face, meet door. Door, face.

She then comes out, only to say, “I want you to know that I respect you and you have to respect me. And you have to understand: you can’t say hurtful things to me.” With that, off she goes, out the front door and into the parking lot. She won’t engage in any meaningful conversation with him, eventually going back to the hotel.

“The way that you are acting is not fair to me. I am happy for you, I am, but I am here for me at the same time.” Brad’s jaw drops at all this (the camera zooms in on this, making sure we don’t miss it). He shakes his head, says, “ ’Kay,” then leaves.

In her limo ride of shame (which is actually a small silver taxi ride of shame), Whitney says that while she respects Brad and herself, “Marriage is not for me and Brad. I am not ready to marry him.”

Good thing, then, that Bianka is. As she prepares for the final Rose Ceremony, she says, “Coming into it, I was so skeptical. … It would be devastating if he didn’t propose. I am crazy in love with him.”

And she’s not hedging her bets, wardrobe-wise, wearing a full-length white gown that would do as a wedding dress in a pinch. Brad tears up as she walks down the aisle to meet him on a platform overlooking the ocean. They declare their love for each other; he gets down on bended knee and asks her to marry him. She says yes and the crazy kids are engaged.

The curtain closes on their love story — until next week’s episode, of course.

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